


Neither the fury of the furious flame

by Selka, youckou



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Non-English Source
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8269087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selka/pseuds/Selka, https://archiveofourown.org/users/youckou/pseuds/youckou
Summary: Rome during more than 2 000 years...





	1. Poesy

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Ni la fureur de la flamme enragée](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8268992) by [Selka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selka/pseuds/Selka), [youckou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youckou/pseuds/youckou). 



> English is not my first language, so do not hesitate if I make mistakes

Neither the fury of the furious flame

Neither the fury of the furious flame,  
Nor the sharp of the victorious iron,  
Nor the damage of the furious soldier,  
Who so many times, Rome, wrecked you,

Neither one after the other your changed fortune,  
Nor to eat awayat him of the envious centuries,  
Nor the resentment of men and gods,  
Nor against you your stored power,

Nor shake him of the brash winds,  
Not the overhang of this tortuous god  
Who so many times covered you with his wave,

So have your lowered pride,  
That the size of the nothing that they left  
Does not again make you amaze the word,

Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560)  
translated by Selka (1990-)


	2. Ab Urbe Condita

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rome and the Latin League

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to tell me if you don't understand, English is not my first language.

"But what this damn kid is doing still here?"

Rome tighten his fists at Tibur's interjection. Kid. Kiddo. Dear. Son. My baby. These were the only words that they had in the mouth when they spoke to him. And, this time, he was going to make them understand who he really was.

"I am a member of the Latin Leage. I have the right to be here."

Aricia pushed a groan.

"Don't tell me that they are again going to put him in our legs."  
"Apparently yes. Romulus, honey, don't you want to go to play outside?"

Cora's soft tone didn't calm the boy. On the contrary. Up from his eight years of physical age, he glared at all the others.

"No. I want to stay with you."  
"The meeting is this way, kid. If you want to see the meeting and learn things, go with the humans."

Albe's cold voice imposed a heavy silence in the room. The child felt anger running through his veins.

"What they said, it isn't important. It's to you to learn me ! I won the right ! I won it by facing you, Albe ! You can't ignore me ! Especially not you !"

The older gave an irritated look to the younger.

"Don't get smart. You may be have won in power, but you are just a kid. With a gloriousness passive, furthermore."

Romulus opened the mouth, insulted. He was getting up to answer, but Corra stopped him in its tracks.

"Albe, leave him... He is just a child. You're upset, so you make him pay, but he won the war against you. He has every right to ask some questions. Particulary when it's you who shoul normally take care of his education."

The man just shook his head.

"Very well. What is your question?"  
"Wait a minute ! You aren't going to get out at it like that ! What is your problem ? In what my "origins" have anithing to do with my capacity to be part of the Latin League?"

Another city giglled.

"You are not very smart, you. Need I remind you who raised you ? Without us, you would be probably already in a brothel. You may have made up that in legend, playing on the meaning of the word _lupa_ to change her in a "she-wolf", but we all know what the situation was. The one you consider as your mother was a prostitute, and that's it."

The younger blushed. He didn't have many memories about his first years. He was born - or had appeared, more specifically - in the seven hills. He had been found quickly, but it took a few months so that his foster mother realizes that something was not normal, and end up by drive him to a neighborhood's temple. It wasn't the first time, and probably not the last, that they used this "argument" against him. His mother's profession was one of their favorites, with his physical youth and... His expression is heating up. He knew what was coming after, if he choosed to take the defense of the one who had found him. However, he was not going to let that happen. His benefactress was dead since a long time, but whatever. He owed her too much to let them talk about her like that.

" You think yourselves as better than me ? Yes, she was a prostitute, so what ? She took care of me, you don't have to be lacking her respect. She is dead, don't you have any respect for the deads."

Albe glared at him.

"She was human. You will learn that the respect, that needs to be earned. The fact that she is dead doesn't give her privileges."  
"Albe !"

Cora's reprobatory tone made her interlocutor sigh.

"What ? It is a childish and simplistic way of thoughts, like him. And this is well show his weakness."  
"I am not weak ! I won against you !"

The latter clenched his teeth.

"By treachery. Your Horace, your pitiful survivor, didn't even have the courage to face his brothers' failure, and he choose to take advantage of my Curiaces' wounds to kill them in the back. Before killing his own wife because she had the nerves to crying her brothers."  
"They were Rome's foes, and he has the right to do so. For her part, it was in Rome where she owed her loyalty and neither to Albe. It is unfortunate that he had to get to this point, but is doesn't belong to you to judge it. He was his husband and the head of her family."  
"Let's say that. And the fact that your beloved romans come from a bunch of slaves, thieves, criminals and stateless ? Though, it explains part of his behaviour. It's in his blood, in all your blood."  
"You rejected them, why do you care that I welcomed them ?"  
"It cares to us that the only solution you found to justify your existence and keep you alive was to abudct, rape and force to marry woman on whom you has no right."  
"Hypocrite. I had to survive, you would have done the same. Anyway, I believe your memory plays with you. Contrary to the Albe's traitor, the Sabins women knew towards whom had to go their loyalty. They protected their husband, even though it was against their father or their brother, because, by their wedding, they became romans."  
"That doesn't make it respectable to the extent, kid." Commented Tibur. "For my part, I think that we are a little better than that. Stop with your loyalty, learn the concept of honour, and come back to us."  
"Don't come to talk to me about honour ! You shoul learn to respect me, before daring to evoke the honour. I am..."  
"You are a little foolhardy, this is who you are. What makes you think you're up to us? Don't make me laugh ! If we wanted this, we could crush you. You took the name of your first king, as if there was the slightest of his actions of which you could be proud. He was an opportunist. As for you, you are nothing, compared with us."

Rome squeezed his fists. Moving back of two steps, he stared his burning with rabies look on the Latin League's members. The absence of comments of others indicated clearly their point of view on the question. Even Cora, who nevertheless tended to take his stand, even if it was by infantilizing him, did not contradict her co-worker.

"That's not true."  
"No, that is true. And you know it. That's the case today, and it will always be. You are weak, and you always will be. And this is why you will always keep this kid's appearance. You are childish, and you could never be someone else than a small city full of ambition, and without means to satisfy them."

The silence made heavy. The younger didn't answer. He just focused on Albe, furious. Finally, he released him eyes to look at the other present cities. Some of them looked uncomfortable, others derisive or even contemptuous, when they simply ignored him carefully. Abruptly, his fury calmed down, replaced by a cold determination. He took a deep breath, closing eyelids. Finally, he opened them, and stared the bystanders. A contemptuous grin deformed the young face.

"That satisfies you, right ? That ressures you, that allows you to feel better ? It is true, I am a child. But you forget something: I am like you. I am not human. Enjoy your so-called supremacy. It will not last. By the way, you know what ? I am not going to satisfy myself to be as good as you. The Latium only will be the first step. I will go farther, much farther than everything you would never have been able to dream. I will rule the World. And, that day, I will not do the same mistake as you. Every "children" I will meet, I will believe in their potential. And I will be wary of them. Like you should wary of me.

"Is it a threat, Romulus?"

Cora's question removed Rome's venomous expression. He sketched a charming smile, but the light in his eyes didn't become milder.

"No. It is a oath."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't understand and have historical questions, don't hesitate to ask us


	3. Already superbia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the royalty in Roma

"You are going to do something.  
\- To do what?  
\- Stop them. Make them obey. I am their king, they owe me obedience."

 

Romulus put his look strangely quiet on Tarquinius Superbus. Sighing, he roses, unfolding gradually his legs. Lately, he had grown up a lot, not as city, but as human. Today, he looked almost more like a thirteen or fourteen teenager than the child he was one or two years ago. The world would change, fast, quickly. It already changes, even if this pompous human seems to consider himself untouchable.

 

Because he was entitled king ans he was etruscan, he believed himself higher. As if being estruscan gived him the slightest legitimacy... The Etruscans were nothing, anymore. Without the prestige they benefited from rulling over the city, their names would have probably been erased from the memories. The city of Roma was maybe not the most powerful, but she couldn't be ignored anymore like the others members of the Latin Leage could have been doing in the beginning.

 

"Are you listening to me, Romulus?"

This man's voice didn't seem as strong anymore, as imperious. It had lost its authority. The fact that he give him order seems unnatural. At each word, he became irritated a little more, making him want to shut him up. Whatever the means.

"I'm going out.  
\- No, you too, you have to obey me! You think you can be opposed to me?

The teenager made ne reply, but the mocking grimace he showed had to be clear enough. Tarquinius grab him by the arm, forcing him to sit down.

\- You will do what I will tell you, Roma.  
\- No. You never gived me a reason, to do this. You never have been something else than a coward, a murderer and a fool. And, today, you allow yourself to disregard the Senate. You don't deserve your title.  
\- I have nothing to prove you, kiddo. Nothing to deserve, nothing to justify, either to you or to anyone else. I am the _King_.

\- You are a degenerate, like the rest of your family. You have reached the throne by marrying to a parricide who throw out on the street and made assassinate on the ground her own father. And, you, you had forbidden him until the slightest burial.  
\- His father was a former slave.  
\- Servius Tullius was a good king, he deserved to be respected.  
\- Respect him? Whatever, he disn't have the right to be there.  
\- And your son does he have the right to be there? What does he deserve, your son? What does a man raping the spouse of another man and who, for restauring her honor and the one of her family, hadn't has other choice that ending her life, deserve?"

 

The etruscan looked at him, full of self-importance. Tarquinius Superbius, Tarquinius Proditoris, Tarquinius puffed up with pride and pretention allowed himself to look at him. Him. A cold anger, wwell known run into his veins. Oblivious to the consequences of his acts, the human spoke.

 

"And you would rebelled because a free man and a poor woman had died?"

 

Romulus freezed himself, let himself be dragged towards the balcony. The king's grip remained around his biceps. It was painful, but less than the words that the usurper had uttered. Finally, the man pushed him outside. Under him, swarming crowd with romans words mixed. No sentence, no slogan seemed to grow apart this constant noise, but he could feel the anger, and their looks put on him. The feeling of betrayal, incomprehension. It emptied a little more in his body with each heart beating.

 

Of course, it was not the first time his people were angry. But, here, it was different. Stand up was meaningless, he felt it. Something was meant to disappear, today, or this man, the unjustifiable title he identified himself or himself. A pressure on his arm made him take back to reality.

 

"Tell them, now. Tell them what to do.  
\- You want me... to tell them to listen to you?  
\- Stop challenging me, Roma.  
\- Do you know the name of that woman?  
\- What?  
\- The name of the one your son disgraced.

 

Tarquinius went past the other hand behind the boy's nape, grip its painfully.

 

\- You are my city, you owe me obedience.  
\- The woman's name was... Lucrecia. And Lucrecia isn't dead, she killed herself.  
\- And? Whatever how she died, or why.  
\- Your son raped her. She is dead to take ith her the dishonor that you and your son have pourred on all her family.  
\- And what? She had no other choice. Her husband would have never agree the adultery. He would have abandonned her. And her life would also have been over. It's like you, as a matter of fact. What could you done, without me. There is no kingdom without king. Without me, you die. Do you want to die, Romulus? For restoring your beloved honor?"

 

The world seemed to slow down, while these words penetrated into his spirit at the edge of implosion. He did not want to die. He was too far from his purpose. He had not submitted the Latium's cities yet. He had not seen the orld yet, had not touched it. He wanted to leave to see what there was beyond all the horizons. But this... Follow this man... That one, and maybe all the illegitimate's crazies which would follow him, which would deceive incredible powers which their status would confer on them... No. He had to stop him. Stop him, and all those who would want to suceed. Roma would not be the city which would give in to miserable human beings the powers deserving of Gods. His honor forbade him. Lucrecia had not wanted to survive her honor. He understood. But he was not going to do the same. He wanted to see the world. He wanted to feel, to touch... He wanted to take it up. He wanted to live.

"I don't want to die.

The king had a satisfied grin.

\- Then speak.

\- No. I will not speak. And I will not die. You are going to leave, you and your family. You will leave Roma. Roma doesn't need you. The Senate can perfectly assure the missions which you claim as yours.

\- Who do you think you are? You are just a little city. Without us you would be nothing.

\- I am Roma. And even if I was actually nothing, it would always be much better that you and your miserable family can never be.

\- I could kill you, here, under the eyes of your precious peaople.

\- You could try. But I will not let you make so easily.

\- You little..."

 

Strong voices, coming from the corridor, stopped the Etruscan. Romulus seizes the wrist of the man, squeezing him excessively hardly. "They're here for you, Tarquinius. The etruscan threw an alarmed look behind him. Suddenly, he seized a knife, which was until then on the table, and he rested the blade on the teenager's neck. - You are going to prevent them from it. If they pretend to approach, I will cut your throat. Romulus had a sufficient, impertinent smile. - You won't do it. - Oh yes? Give me one good reason. - You have many flaws, but you are relatively intelligent. They are not going to kill you, there will be no benefit to it. If they did that, they would risk to incur the wrath of the others cities. But, if you kill me? Whate are they left ith, if I am dead? Their futures will be uncertain, they will not know any more where they are. They won't have anything more to lose and, at that point, the consequences of your death will be the slightest of their concerns."

 

The king's eyes were ardent of hatred. But Romulus, contrary to any logic, felt a feeling of enjoyment. This hatred was a confession of weakness, powerlessness. With a casual gesture, Romulus pushed away his agressor who fell on the floor. Immediately, the insurgents'hands seized him, dragging him far from the personification of the city. He permitted himself a satisfied smile.

 

Tarquinius stared resentfully Romulus. Men were placing the necessity for the journey of the former royal family in a trolley.

 

"What's going on, Tarquinius? Dissatisfied with your fate? It seems nevertheless that life is enjoyable to Tarquinia at this time of the year.

\- You will pay for your recklessness, Romulus. I will take back what is mine.

\- There is nothing more here which belongs to you.

\- The city is mine. Your life is mine.

\- I don't think so. But nothing prevents you from imagining it, and dream about it from your exile.

\- My exile? My exile will be your loss. I will lead against you all my allies. What you have in mind, whatever that is, will die so quickly as a flying spark can be put out.

 

Romulus only chuckled.

 

\- Cheer up, Tarquinius. your name will stay in the History like the last man in Roma who carried the royal title."


End file.
